Questions to owners of 07-13 Suburban/Yukon XL 2500s

[MichaelSE]

Keep searching there, or on craigslist. You can use searchtempest.com to specify which craigslist sites to search in. I have had good luck finding them in the southerns states (TX, OK in specific). As they get older, finding them with lower miles will be hard to find, but I wouldn't be afraid of higher miles on a well maintained truck.

Thanks, I'll check out Searchtempest. Surprisingly most of the 2LTs or 3LTs I'm finding on cars.com with with <100k miles are in the east.. Pennsylvania, New York, South Carolina. Looks like a long road trip may be in my future.

What mileage would you consider too high for a 2500, well maintained or otherwise?

 

[camaroz1985]

You don't want anything from the northeast. Rust!!! That is why I go south to find my trucks. As for mileage it depends on the year. I generally look for something with higher miles for the year (like over 20k a year). I don't like low mileage vehicles, a) people think they are worth their weight in gold, and b) I have found on the few lower mile vehicles I have bought or worked on that things need replaced just as much because they are sitting most of their life and not being used. I use the 20k per year as a good guideline, but if higher that generally means a lot of highway, which is much more gentle on the vehicle.

I bought a Silverado 3500 Duramax with over 400k miles, and it ran and drove like new (Test drove one that was the same MY, but only had 44k miles right before it). I drove that truck for 3 years and it was trouble free. Actually sold it for about $3k more than I had in it the entire time I owned it (including fuel).

 

[MichaelSE]

I found a nice clean one nearby, 78k miles, 3LT, 4x4, clean inside and out... but they were unwilling to move on their $11k trade offer for my LTZ. I mean I was expecting to get lowballed, but damn, not that badly. Every online trade appraisal tool I've tried has me at $14k (and that's "fair" condition) all the way up to $18k.

 

[camaroz1985]

You could always sell it outright yourself. Did you try CarMax? They will still lowball you, but maybe not by that much. We sold a Forester to them, and it was only about $1000 lower than the blue book trade-in.

 

[MichaelSE]

You could always sell it outright yourself. Did you try CarMax? They will still lowball you, but maybe not by that much. We sold a Forester to them, and it was only about $1000 lower than the blue book trade-in.

Not bad, there's a Carmax in El Paso so I think I'll head there next week to get a quote. Appreciate all your advice man.

 

[Matt_]

Make sure the price you worked out on the truck is still valid without the trade before you sell it to carmax.

Dealers work both ends, sometimes lowering the price of the sale by making up for it in the trade.

Also worth considering how your state handles taxes. In my state we don't pay tax on the value of a trade in. So if I buy a $25k truck and get $15k for trade in, I only pay tax on the $10k difference. I would therefore have to sell my car for $16k before breaking even on the same deal, not withstanding if the $25k sale price would also increase without the trade.